Beech 200 Air Ambulance in emergency landing at Lanseria, SA

[Richard from Rotterdam]

from IOL: http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_ ... 28945#more" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

>>> picture shows Beech 200 with collapsed nosegear. Serial unreadable from photo.

Air ambulance makes shaky landing at Lanseria

June 10 2009 at 03:19PM

An air ambulance flying from Cape Town to East London had to make an emergency landing on Wednesday at Lanseria International Airport north of Johannesburg.

The plane's front wheel had failed to retract properly and the pilot elected to land at the airport west of Pretoria rather than fly on to East London.

He called the airport with his emergency and landed on a runway parallel to the main runway with emergency fire tenders and ambulances in attendance.

Witnesses said the plane landed normally on approach but, as the nose came down, the front undercarriage failed to support its weight and the plane slid, apparently under control, for about 200m before coming to a halt.

The plane landed normally - but the front undercarriage failed
The four occupants - it is not clear if the two apart from the crew were patients - evacuated safely and were hustled away.

The planes stood on the runway for some time before being towed away while crash investigators checked it over.

An initial estimate put damage to the plane at about R1,5-million.